The ABC's of The Foot

Dear reader,

Today I am going discuss about the foot, not to worry too much because it is going to be as simple as possible. It is important to have a reasonable amount of understandings of the foot before we move on to more interesting stuff.

Okay, here we go!

Before you wonder whose foot is that, I actually took it from Google Image. It would be helpful if you can have a quick look at your own feet. Do they have a fairly similar structure and feature? Make sure you have five toes on each side, intact nails, arches on the midfoot and smooth heels.

Interesting fact: The Foot

• Your foot & ankle is a strong, mechanical structure that contains 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons & ligaments.
• All the bones in your feet made up of 1/4 of all the bones in the human body. When these bones are out of alignment, the rest of the body is affected too. (Foot is like a piling a to a building.)
• One foot is often larger than the other, therefore knowing your larger foot is important during shoe fitting.
• When walking, each time your heel lifts off the ground it forces the toes to carry one half of your body weight.
• During an average day of walking (approximately 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day), the total force acted on your feet can be as heavy as a blue whale (170 tonnes of weight).
• The average person will walk around 115,000 miles in a life-time, that’s more than four times around the EARTH!
• 75% of Americans will experience foot problems at one time or another in their lives. Can you imagine ¾ of the population of Malaysians experience foot complication?
• Women have about FOUR TIMES as many foot problems as men. High heels are partly to blame.
• Walking is regarded as the best exercise for your feet. It contributes to your general health by improving circulation and weight control.

Despite the ‘small-ness’ of our feet when compared to our body, they receive huge impact on each foot strike and also depends on how heavy you are. (Sometimes I would blame Gravity!)

The above diagram shows the bony structure of a human foot and can you imagine how all these tiny bones and muscles support the whole body-weight, keep you balanced, act as shock absorbers and allow you to jump and run freely. How can we still neglect our poor feet? It can be quite unfair for them sometimes don't you think so?

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. My contact can be found at my profile. Cheers!

Keep calm more to come! =)

The Humble Launching

To all the new readers of this Blog,

Hi, my name is Louis Loy and I am a Malaysian. This is not the first time I have written a blog but this time is a bit different. In fact, the last blog that I have written was 4 years ago so I am very rusty at blogging already. Please don’t ask me about my last blog as I myself can’t even remember the name of the blog already! (There are too much things to remember these days)

The reason I started this new blog is to create an awareness. Mainly:

1. Awareness about the role of PODIATRIST.

2. Awareness about diabetes and the diabetic foot.

3. Awareness about our POOR feet.

If you ever wonder why am I creating this blog to talk about the feet and the nasty diabetic foot? The simple answer is I fell in love with the human foot. It just fascinates me totally! Before you said I am a weirdo or crazy. Please allow me to express myself and my thoughts. First of all, how many of you that are reading this blog have actually spend time taking care or looking after your feet as compared to the rest of your body especially your face?

Answer: Well I would imagine not many.

As you can tell, our poor feet are often neglected and I will give your some example to make things clear.

Example 1: How often do we wash our feet properly? (with soap and water and in between the toes)

Example 2: How many of us actually cream our feet as often as we apply body lotion

Example 3: Are we actually wearing the right footwear (flip-flops? high-heels? barefoot?)

Example 4: Who do we go to if we suffer a foot injury or a foot disease? (G.P? foot & ankle surgeon? Chinese physician? Masseur? self-treatment? OR a PODIATRIST?)

These examples given are not to criticise anyone but to educate and to cultivate people regarding the foot health, which also relate to the name of our blogspot (Feet For Health). If you ever wonder how the name is given. It actually derived from a few ideology like food for thought, fit for health, or fit for life. Voila! The name is BORN!

A simple explanation, as I am a simple guy, is that we need to have a healthy feet to have a healthy life. And health is the ultimate wealth don’t you agree? Think of it this way: What can you do without your feet? I presume there are many thoughts for this question but no worries because as we move along the thinking might change.